Now who did not see that coming a mile away?
(holding his head in his hands)
You want to be able to drive your new EV on some form of decent road right?
Well there you go.
EXACTLY!
How did ātheyā not figure this out before committing to EVās with the reduction in taxes due to oil.
The roads being build using oil.
Increase ito load on electrical infrastructure.
When switching the worlds energy source, you better have a solution in hand.
I disagree. This idea that we cannot make a move until we have everything figured out just means we never make a move at all. Of course, that is what the oil industry wantsā¦ for us not to move. At least, not too fast. At least wait until the next dividend check is paid out to our investors will ya!?
In reality, we always tend to fly by the seat of the pants a bit. We jump while someone else is still building the net. We make it up as we go along. We build it, hoping that they will comeā¦ or we come, hoping that someone will build it. Thatās just how it is.
What I find irksome ā and I know that is not what you are doing ā is when people use this as an argument for sticking with oil. What is especially funny, especially when dealing with Americans, is those people who are suddenly so deeply concerned with lost taxes, are usually red-voting Americans who consider taxation tantamount to theft 
Feel the same.
I ponder on:
Stopping oil too slow has consequences.
Stopping oil too fast has consequences.
ā¦ we donāt want a war.
So just me venting when the authorities suddenly reach a new ārevelationā.
The same authorities whom have access to the best of the best a country can produce to find solutions, and it will costs a lot (we all are gong to pay), and not default to like i.e. ātaxing per mileā, the low hanging fruit so to speak.
Apply humankinds ingenuity. Work the right plan, whatever the eggheads come up with.
At least in South Africa we have the concept of āthe beneficiary paysā. Of course they tried that with toll roads up North, and discovered quickly that the populace wanted to know who the real beneficiaries were.
In that sense, that the beneficiaries of something pays for that something, I absolutely foresee that some way will be needed to make up for revenue as we move away from oil, and that the drivers of electric vehicles will be expected to cough up. Iām also alright with that.
Not all of the taxes on fuel translates into real loss either. Consider that our fuel price includes 1) 33% Taxes and levies, 2) 14% retail and wholesale margins, 3) 6% storage and distribution costs. As the demand for fossil fuels dwindle, the retail and storage costs also goes away. That means 20% of the fuel cost does not need to be recovered through some new tax.
The remaining 33%, I can almost guarantee that government will seek to retain it in some manner. But even this need not be the case. If the move away from fossil fuels also results in lower healthcare expenses, it may well be that the full 33% does not have to be passed on.
Further to that, a large amount of lost tax can be made up simply by adding VAT to electricity sales. And the nice thing here (well, nice for government), is that it can apply that VAT to electricity it hasnāt even generated. It can be applied to electricity sales from renewable charge station operators too.
Soā¦ what you see me doing hereā¦ is āhaving a possible solution at handā
And we get taxed per mile anyway with diesel and petrol. The cost per litre is made up of significant taxes.
The challenge is getting an electrical equivalent to that. You can add a levy to electricity, but then you end up nailing people on household consumption for the use of the road, and that hits non-vehicle owners (aka the poor) disproportionately, and people charging with solar then donāt contribute to this, so thatās no good.
In Europe it is taxed almost like income tax. Every three months you get a bill from the government (this is in NL). It is your own obligation to pay it even if you didnāt get a bill. If you are caught skipping it, fines apply. There are exemptions for students or other people who donāt have a formal income. The tax is based on the weight of the vehicle, or sometimes the engine size, and the distance traveled. Again, you can attempt to fraudulently claim that you drove it less than you did, but if it catches up with you it gets very painful. In places that already have such a system in place, no replacement of lost taxes are needed, you already pay your fair share.
In those countries where the taxes are based on the weight of the vehicle, EVs actually already get hit harder. Which is of course quite fair as well.
How such a thing will work in SA? Well, that remains to be seen. But the easiest might be to introduce a small annual levy that goes with the licensing fee, and do it early enough that you have time to escalate it over time. Because if you suddenly, in 2035, decide the licensing fees for EVs is 500% of the restā¦ that will not go over well.
Edit: I suppose you can also increase the levies on tyres (something that already exists). Still, youād probably have to significantly increase that to cover the 93 billion ZAR that comes from fuel salesā¦
Edit 2: I must say though, I donāt really have much sympathy for government over the loss of this income. The income from fuel taxes simply went straight into the main kitty. It is a significant cash cow for government, which naturally they donāt want to lose, and I am not convinced they diligently applied that only to the actual areas justified by such a tax (accidents, road maintenance, healthcare, management).
There you go and expand my irritation on the issue more eloquently.
If that was done properly, then to accommodate EVās would have been a breeze.
Aaaah sorry man! You see, I am not adverse to taxation. I get the principle that someone has to pay for the nice stuff we share in this country, and that sharing that responsibility across a large pool of people makes the most sense. The thing isā¦ sometimes I think government gets too comfortable with some of their income streams, and forget that it is there for a reason (or at least should be).
Take the Ad Valorem tax on vehicles. Introduced in 1994, it targeted vehicles that cost more than 250k at the time. Given that an entry level vehicle like a Mazda Midge/Ford Tracer was 35k back in 1994, 250k could certainly be considered luxury. Today, a Suzuki Celerio is 185k and a VW Polo is over 260k. This tax was however never adjusted for inflation. If we brought it back in line with inflation, the BYD Dolphin and Atto, the Mini Cooper SE, the GWM Ora 3, even high ends cars like the BMW iXā¦ suddenly become a whole lot cheaper.
Totally agreeā¦ If you look at the amount of energy our large smelters,etc use and the cost benefits they get as Large Power Users the EV side in SA is a drop (small one) in a huge ocean.